Study On The Imperial Freedmen Of The Early Roman Empire

The Early Roman Empire(from 27 B.C.to the 3rd century A.D.)was the most brilliant and prosperous period of ancient Rome,and it was also an important period for the rapid development of slavery economy in Rome.During this period,ancient Roman society completed a major change from republic to imperialism in politics,economy and culture.It was during this transitional period that a special group appeared in ancient Roman society,which called imperial freedmen.The imperial freedmen were a special branch of the group of freedmen.They belonged to the imperial family and were distinguished from other freedmen by the fact that their patron were the imperator of the Roman Empire.According to the classical literature,the emperor trusted and relied on their freedmen in the early empire.They often appointed the imperial freedmen as officials in the bureaucracy to handle the administrative affirs of the empire,and also allowed their freedmen to serve as fimance director to manage his large private property.With the increse of wealth,the imperial freedmen sometimes directly influenced the emperor 's decisions,and even his will.The emperor and the imprial freedmen have established a certain reciprocal social relationship.The emperor provided protection and granted some special rights to his freedmen,while the imperial freedmen had the obligation to obey the emperor.It was by virtue of the sepcial relationship with the emperor that the imperial freedmen palyed an important role in the early Roman Empire.This article studies the social characteristics of the early Roman Empire from the perspective of the imperial freedmen,discusses the special connection between the imperial freedmen and the emperor,and examines the influences of the imperial freedmen on the early Roman Empire society.This paper is divided into four chapters.The first chapter studies the formation of the imperial freedmen,expounds the influence of oligarchy on freedmen in the late republic period,and focuses on the internal relationship between the formation of the imperial freedmen and principate.The second chapter will use the reign of several emperors as an entry point,mainly sorts out the development trend of the imperial freedmen.The third chapter studies the relationship between the emperor and the imperial freedmen,reveals the reasons why the emperor trusted the slave on early Roman Empire,and focuses on the special characteristics of the imperial freedmen.The fourth chapter mainly intouduce the influence of imperial freedmen on the early Roman empire from the political,economic and social cultural aspects.The study in this article is expected to enrich the research on ancient Roman history and freedmen,improve the study of the imperial freedmen,and hopes to help people better understand imperial freedmen and the early Roman Empire society.